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Saturday, August 16, 2008

Keep On Trunkin!

For those of you who were children in the 70's you recognize my title as a play on the old saying "Keep on truckin'"--I think I had a t-shirt with that on it. I thought it was appropriate for this old trunk--it just keeps on going. I would love to know how many "lives" it has had and who originally owned it.

When I got it--a week or so ago--from a thrift store for $2, it was in need of some TLC. It had been used to store elk antlers--stinky!! There was some great newspaper in it from December 29th, 1949 from Omaha. I looked at it carefully, but had to toss it because it smelled so bad.

The first thing this trunk got was good scrubbing with some bleach water (there were several spider egg sacks in the inside as well). I then primed the inside and painted it, which took care of the nasty smell. I scrubbed up the outside, put a coat of poly on it before painting it to "glue" down the tears in the fabric covering. I did the decorative painting and put more poly on it. I'd like to say it is as good as new, but it won't ever be. The leather on it is fragile (BTW--there are flowers stamped on several places on the leather straps--I love details like that!). But, for now it has a new life as a fun coffee table for someone!

6 comments:

Wow...it looks gorgeous now! I have an old trunk and I don't know how to clean it or paint it. Did you wash the outside with bleach water too? I have some tears on the fabric outside too, but don't understand how you fixed them...could you pleaseeeeee help!?

Michele, Thanks! I did use the bleach water on the outside, but very diluted so that it wouldn't change the color. You could use just good old hot water--this trunk needed some disinfecting though so that's why I used the bleach.

I used the polyacrylic by minwax to seal the rips down. If you click on the picture and enlarge it you will see that there are still holes in the fabric in the top, but someone can't rip them further. Does that make sense?

I love old trunks and this one is a great one. I love the paint treatment, it looks like the one you used on the black end table. The end table has got to be one of my favorite projects I have seen. Is it a stencil you used or did you just freehand it? Keep up the great projects I love your ideas.

About Me

Hello there, I am Becky, a 50 something year old mother of 3, plus 1 sweet son waiting for me in heaven, a wife, junker, decorator, retired teacher. I love hunting for junk that I can repurpose, build with, or paint on. I live in 1931 schoolhouse that we are busy trying to personalize and renovate. I also love taking advantage of the great outdoors in this beautiful place I live, Montana.

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